The Art of the Title Sequence

The style of this title sequence is a old fashion style. This style of writing reflects the time the film was set in. Also some of the parts have been written on old paper. This gives the effect that it is old but stylish. On the sequence it states the:
-Director
-Producers
-Actors
-The film name
-etc...
The images placed in the sequence was like an anthem to the film, which kind of shows you what the film is like. Also this title sequence was shown at the end of the film. This might have been done to summaries the film. Most of the shots used in the sequence was close ups. This sequence is like a summery of the whole film, it's as if it is telling us a story.

The Art of the Title Sequence (Title Sequence Analysis)

This is a title sequence from one of my favourite films, 'Kung Fu Panda'. The title sequence is drawn in manga style and the words of the title are written in block capitals. In just by seeing the font of the writing, we can see that the film is going to be an animated comedy as the title font denotes a sense of humour; the words 'KUNG FU PANDA' are enough to denote humour on their own as it's not every day that one comes across a kung fu fighting panda; the word 'PANDA' is bigger and wider than the rest of the tile, which emphasises the comedy aspect of there being a kung fu fighting panda. If the title sequence was to be pink and bubbly, it would take away the kung fu credibility of the film. By using this type of font on this particular back drop, the audience can see that although the title words themselves are hilarious, the film will definitely have something to do with kung fu. The words of the title are set on the back drop of a rising sun - which indicates to us that the film is set in China (the 'land of the rising Sun').

This particular title sequence is made up of mainly images. The title sequence is hand-drawn and in 2D. The third image of the sequence is almost like an establishing shot, introducing us to the kung fu fighting panda. The panda is wearing a traditional Chinese robe and happens to be standing in a Chinese duelling stadium. There are no words placed over any of these images. This image, although very funny, seems to be quite serious at first and one doesn't see the funny aspect until the next image, which so happens to be a close-up of the panda's face. The panda is wearing a Chinese mens' hat and has a very serious look on his face. The sudden seriousness of the previous image is turned into out-right humour in this shot as we see that this really is a film about a kung fu fighting panda! In the following images, the panda is shown to be practicing kung fu and encountering some sort of enemy. Although the thought of a panda doing any of this is hilarious, the sequence is devised in quite a serious, fight-like manner, which makes us take it seriously. The title sequence then leads into the film, where we are introduced to the not-so kung fu, not-so glamorous panda.

This opening would appeal to males and females, young and old alike as the font of the sequence seem, in my opinion, aimed at those who enjoy comedy and a little adventure. But, I do think that the style that the images have been drawn in would appeal to those who enjoy Japanese/Chinese anime/manga and they could possibly have been a target audience.

This title sequence appeals to me because I enjoy animated comedy and I find them to be more entertaining than comedies that have been acted out. The whole aspect of a kung fu panda is a very strange one but one that definitely denotes humour. This film also appeals to me in the sense that the title sequence is almost making a mockery of itself by trying to be serious but this just adds to how very funny the title sequence and the rest of the film is!

News and current affairs events (continued)

Blue Lagoon Victim 'Was Held As A Slave'

'A 'vulnerable man was treated as a slave before his headless body was dumped in a lake in Bedfordshire, a court has been told.'

This affair could be used as a basis for a murder-mystery thriller. In this case, the victim was tortured before being inhumanely killed by his captors. In a thriller movie, the victim could be shown to be kidnapped and detained, constantly living in fear and suffering from psychological and physical damage by being forced to endure atrocities. The thriller would contain lots of quick location changes, which would demonstrate a sense of running away - mainly from the authorities, who may be onto the kinappers. The climax of the film would be the gruesome death of the victim and the subsequent dumping of the body in a lake, which would, in turn, be rather disturbing.

News and current affairs events (continued)

Turkish Girl 'Buried Alive' In Family Garden

'A Turkish teenager found dead in a hole next to her house was probably buried alive, a post-mortem examination has revealed.'

This news could be made into a very gripping thriller film. Honour killings are a very controversial topic and a majority of people oppose it - due to this, people are interested in honour killing cases. In this case, the plot could include the victim of the honour killing to be fleeing from her angry family members and finding herself in terrifying situations and in new terrain. The climax of the film could result in the victim being caught after a frenzied attempt at escape and their life being subsequently taken away from her.

News and current affairs events

Bomb Maker Jailed for Three Years

'A former member of a far-right group has been jailed for three years for making explosives in his home, including a pipe bomb.'

This could be made into a very interesting thriller film. This type of film would appeal to audiences who enjoy watching films that contain a plot that involves extremist views and terrorism. The thriller could be based on a far-right group member who is plotting a terror attack on the public. The film could follow him as he attends meetings and plans his terror attack, leading up to the climax of the film where the man could be sought after by police. Tension would be present throughout the entire film as the audience would anticipate the attack and also be quite disturbed by the plans that the man is making, alongside viewing aspects of the man's personal life (he could possibly have an alcoholic father, a crazy mother and an estranged wife). A film with this type of plot would be different to other films that contain a terror plot as normal extremist-plot films showcase young, Middle Eastern men as the extremists with terror on their minds, but this film would showcase the extremist as a young, English man who dislikes people of ethnic-minorities. The film would spark up a lot of controversy, as well as being quite thrilling!

The Art of the Title Sequence

This is the title sequence of 'Sherlock Holmes'. The font of the titles are in bold, capital letters which connotes a bigger, shocking picture. This makes the title seem serious and helps to relate the film to its original genre, in this case a thriller. For example, if the fonts were lower case letters in bubble writing, this would be more ideally suitable for a comedy or a romantic comedy. This will also help to attract a particular audience such as females, so by using bold letters, attracts mainly the male audience and it looks much more suspicious and puts emphasis on the words to make them really stand out. The titles appear on screen at different times and at different directions which looks more interesting. They also appear on different backgrounds instead of one plain simple background i.e pitch black so this helps the audience to see the actual images on the screen at the same time whilst reading the titles. The names of the casts are in larger fonts than their role, which makes them seem more important because they are the actual people who are involved in the film.

The title consists of the following information:

• the names of the actors/actresses
• the names of the individuals in the production team (screenplay/visual effects/ producers etc)
• production company (Silver Pictures)
• the title of the film (Sherlock Holmes)

There are many different images in each shot of the storyboard which all look suspicious. The images do not make it clear to the audience what it is, but this adds suspense as it leaves the audience thinking. The images are shown like clues and this makes the audience get more involved in the film and want to watch on further. There are many different images shown such as a pencil writing on paper, a bullet, a news paper article heading, a finger print, and blood. This all seems mysterious as though someone is planning to do something as there are many writings shown and the blood displayed on the paper connotes that there will be danger. There is even a time that is highlighted on the paper (02:28) which indicates that this is probably the time that the event is planned to happen. The titles do not appear on all the images so this allows the audience to see the images and not have to read all the titles as this can get a little boring. So by adding a few titles shows the importance of them and leaves the audience with the basic information and clues given from the images, getting the audience warmed up for the film.

The images on the title sequence shows a lot of close-up and extreme close- up shots of objects to emphasise them as well as make the audience see them better. However, this adds suspense as the audience cannot see the other things in a shot, so this makes them think of what else there can be lying around. There are extreme close-ups of the tip of a pencil and a bullet. Also close -ups of particular words on newspapers which indicate that these are the most important words that the producers want the audience to read.

This title sequence looked very vague and suspicious which is why it appealed to me so much. I thought the images and choice of shots i.e an extreme close-up of the tip of a pencil, really made the title seem interesting and unique as it focuses on the part of the pencil which displays the writing on paper. The fact that there are so many different images shown and the titles appear at different directions really make the title sequence packed full of clues but yet not giving anything away.

Match Cut

In our groups we had to create a sequence, which includes a match cut. We had to film someone opening a door and going in to sit down, where they will see someone and exchange a few dialogues. We had obey the 180 degree rule. We had to have a over the shoulder shot, match cut, and a shot reverse shot.

I think our group did good. We heave done a couple of match cuts in the sequence but we had to film the sequence quite a bit in order for us to choose the one that looks the best. we used the shot reverse shot in the dialogue sequence. We used the over the shoulder shot in the part were the person walks in through the door. A low angle shot was used to capture the person shoes.

Match Cut Prelim Analysis

For our match cut preliminary, we had to film a person walking through a door and sitting in front of someone, as well as a few lines of dialogue. It had to include a match cut, a shot-reverse-shot, and we had to obey the 180-degree rule.

I believe we did quite well, as all the match cuts we filmed came out successfully. One in particular was a shot of someone opening a door, followed by a shot of their foot as they walked through. This worked well as it meant you didn't see their face, creating suspense as to what they look like and who they are.

The shot-reverse-shot worked well, however we didn't obey the 180-degree. This is mostly my own fault, as I filmed one person on one side and the other person on the other side, making it look a bit like they were both sitting in the same place. Despite this, I still believe the shot-reverse-shot worked well, as it lets the audience know that there is definitely a conversation going on rather than just one person talking.

Match Cut Prelim Analysis

As part of the coursework, we had to film a sequence which we included a match cut and stay within the hundred and eighty degree rule. The sequence was of someone opening a door and walking into a room. This character also had to sit down opposite another character and share a few lines of dialogue walking through a door. We were told to use different types of shots such as close-ups, long shots, over the shoulder shots and many more alongside actions and different angles of the camera.

As a group we worked out using our imagination, what shots would be effective to use and drew up a detailed storyboard until every member was notified about what was going to happen and was happy to go along with the filming process. Altogether we had ten shots which we planned to film in our storyboard. In my group, we had many shots of the character walking towards and into the room to allow enough filming to do a match cut whilst editing. One shot that I found particularly effective was the the low angle close up of one of the character's' feet because it made the character look suspicious and mysterious as the face was not shown at this point.

The editing process went very well, in my view because the whole group worked together helping out and giving opinions for further improvement. I thought my group did very well for the first match cut exercise. However, we did break the hundred and eighty degree rule as we filmed the shots when the dialogue took place from different sides of the room and the lengths of some edits were quite short which didn't allow enough time to see the actual action.

Overall, I felt the exercise was a success and the few errors which occurred in this exercise were helpful because as a group, we now know what we need to look out for.

Match Cut Prelim

My group and I performed the 'match cut preliminary exercise' and in my opinion, it went very well. The criteria for this exercise required us to film someone opening and closing a door and two people exchanging dialogue in a shot-reverse-shot conversation; the filming also had to contain at least one match cut shot and we weren't allowed to break the '180 degree rule'.
We spent about fifteen to twenty-five minutes devising a story board that consisted of different shots that would enable us to complete the task. We tried to include as many different shots as we could to make our filming look diverse (shot-wise) and not too boring. We included close-ups, extreme close-ups, medium close-ups, over the shoulder shots, low angle shots and a long shot. We also used a shot where we placed the camera on the ground in order to capture one of my group member's moving feet, which was very effective and also looked very professional!
The match cut shot takes place when my group member opens the door and enters with apparent fluidity. One thing that we could have done to make the entire piece look better was to film another match cut taking place towards the end of the clip, when the two people leave the room.
Despite most of our exercise being a success, we did break the 180 degree rule during the shot-reverse-shot conversation. This may seem like a set-back but it actually turned out to be quite helpful to us as a group, as by making this mistake, we realised how to obey the 180 degree rule properly; when we watched our filming back, we saw how breaking this rule effected how the piece turned out. We knew that we wouldn't be able to make this mistake in our thriller opening.
During our editing, we cut out bits that didn't quite fit into the what we wanted as the finished piece. This was a very helpful exercise as it really made us analyse which bits worked with the criteria that was provided.
All in all, I think that our match cut preliminary exercise went very well but there are always improvements to be made and we have definitely taken that into account. This exercise saw to my group really pulling together and implementing different ideas as a team. We shared the work evenly and the end product was something that we were all quite proud of!
By Sabrina Chowdhury

Skills Audit - Soundtrack Pro

In class, I was taught how to use Soundtrack Pro. I learnt how to use a range of different sounds to create a piece of music that sounds both thriller-like and tense. I experimented with a range of different sounds by clicking on them and there were many types of sound to choose from: from jazz and orchestral to distorted and electrical, different types of instruments and special sound effects, such as a door closing or an airplane on the runway. I used the search tab to look for the sounds that were relevant to my own piece. I used a sound effect called 'air lock' to create an airy, whooshing sound; I also used a an ambient sound to add an eerie effect to the piece; I also incorporated a 'dark groan' sound, which made the piece sound rather scary and dramatic; finally, I added in the sound of a door being opened and closed, which is a common sound used to create suspense. I dragged my chosen sounds to the Soundtrack Pro timeline and increased or decrease their lengths according to how I wanted my piece to sound. The end piece sounded very eerie, albeit short!

Skills audit - Soundtrack

In today's lesson, we learned how to use the basics of Soundtrack Pro.

We were told how to use the Search function to find different types of music. I looked through several different genres, instruments and descriptors to find tracks I liked the sound of, and when I found ones I liked I dragged them onto the timeline and edited them as I wished.

SoundTrack Pro

We learnt how to use SoundTrack Pro. We learnt how to drag a sound and put it on the timeline. First we had to click on the search tab in the bottom right corner and then we had to pick a sound we wanted to use to make a sequence.

When we found the sound we wanted to use, we had to drag it on to the timeline. We learnt how to arrange the sounds on the timeline. We learnt how to change the different categories. For example we can change it to "Genres", "Instruments", etc...

Skills Audit- Soundtrack Pro

I used Soundtrack Pro today and learnt several ways in which to make a soundtrack. I browsed through different genres of sounds and also sound effects which I added in my soundtrack to make it seem quite realistic. I used a steady mysterious sound at first to build suspense and then soon came a beat to make it seem as a tense moment is arriving which is the sound effects of a woman screaming and an explosion. I learnt to combine different sounds together to make it seem as one.

News and Current Affairs - Britains Terror Threat Responce 'too slow'

This story could make a good thriller film because it is about terror, which most people fear and gets a lot of people tensed up and worried. This film could be like the film "United 93"
The story line could be about terrorist threatening to blow up something or some place and the terror threat response team are having trouble getting to the crime scene on time.

News and Current Affairs - Girl Fights off Shark with Body Board

This story is also from Sky News. This could make a good thriller film because the story includes a shark and when there is a shark involved people naturally get tensed up. This happens because you never know where or when the shark is going to attack. This creates tension and suspense. From this story you could make a film like Jaws.

News and Current Affairs - Teenage Girl Dies in Hanging at Home

This story from Sky News will make a good thriller film because it will create a lot of suspense in the audience. This story will also work because the audience will always have tension in their mind about whether she is going to get hanged or not. The story could be about a girl getting kidnapped and her family has to pay a ransom, which they don't have, to get her back or she will get hanged.

News and current affairs - "Jigsaw man killer is jailed for life"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/01/jigsaw-man-killer-life-sentence

This story could make a good crime thriller. The film could show the police trying to figure out who the victim is from the pieces of his body that have been scattered, and then trying to catch the murderer after he is identified. This would keep people watching as they try to figure out for themselves exactly who did it and why.